There’s a new reason to look up next time you’re walking along Wakefield Street, with Velvet Violet Lounge preparing to bring cocktails, a collection of food and a little late-night live entertainment to Adelaide’s CBD.

Sitting above the Wakefield Hotel, Velvet Violet is a completely separate destination, with its own entrance from Divett Street creating the feeling that you’ve stumbled across one of the city’s hidden gems.

And that sense of discovery is exactly the point.

Behind the doors, expect a dramatic departure from the traditional pub below. Velvet Violet has been created as a rich, intimate and slightly seductive lounge where deep violet hues, plush velvet and touches of gold set the scene for evenings that might begin with a cocktail and end several hours later.

It’s sophisticated without taking itself too seriously, with General Manage/ Partner Gerry Ebert drawing on a passionate hospitality background to breathe new life into the upstairs space and create something Adelaide’s nightlife scene has been missing.

Rather than becoming another late-night bar, Velvet Violet has been designed around the idea of entertainment, hospitality and atmosphere all existing together.

There will be cocktails, food and everything in between, but what happens on the stage will be just as important as what’s happening behind the bar.

A rotating entertainment program will bring different sounds, performers and experiences into the venue, with shows including Hard Candy joining the line-up. There’ll be a dash of R&B, a little rock and plenty of hidden gems thrown into the mix, creating the kind of soundtrack that might have you arriving for one drink and staying well beyond what you originally planned.

It’s part cocktail lounge, part entertainment destination and part late-night escape.

The opening also marks a new chapter for the historic Wakefield Hotel site.

While the familiar pub continues downstairs, Velvet Violet gives the building an entirely new personality upstairs.

For Gerry, the project is an opportunity to bring his experience and love of hospitality together in a venue that is driven as much by feeling as it is by food and drinks and the interiors have been designed accordingly.

Enjoy rich velvet furnishings, moody violet tones, golden details and low lighting will create an intimate backdrop that embraces the glamour and theatricality of the Velvet Violet name.

It’s a venue that doesn’t want to reveal everything at once.